Call-ins Radio Broadcast Friday 04/16/2021

Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P626 (04-16-21)

Synopsis

It seems in today’s church world or religious world, people do not know what it means to rest. It seems people are either working for their salvation, which is an impossibility, or are trying to double up their efforts in the church to be certain they are pleasing to God. The first question to be asked is, “Do you know what salvation is?” That is where you start. Do you know the totality of the cross, what is accomplished for you and me? Do you know the meaning of the resurrection? Do you know if you are made complete in Christ, being made a child of God, with a new identity, with the Spirit of God living in you? Have you entered the Sabbath rest as spoken about in Hebrews?

And as you come to Christ, realize that you still have sin-indwelling flesh. You are not going to perfect your flesh, or make it better. No, you overcome your flesh by the Spirit, by loving one another. But love is not something you conjure up. Love is a fruit of the Spirit, which comes from a dynamic relationship with the living God, who is love, and is alive living in you, if you are born again. He loved you first, you responded to that love, knowing the meaning of the cross and His resurrection for you, and from receiving the resurrected life of Christ Jesus, you were born again. You now continue in that same love.

You grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. You learn all that has been freely given you, and you come to know that by allowing the Spirit to renew your mind through reading His word, by allowing the Spirit of God to teach you. Any denomination out there may be teaching you truth or may be teaching you error. You will not know until you check out the word of God for yourself, allowing the Holy Spirit to teach you. We are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, and Jesus said that the truth is what sets us free to live in the new way of the Spirit.

Many times people will say you can lose salvation. They say that because they do not know what salvation is, the receiving of eternal life, which can never be taken away. They do not know the reason why we have eternal life, what the cross accomplished or the meaning of the resurrection. It is because of the eternal consequence of the cross that life could even be offered to mankind. Jesus shed His blood on a cross, and that sacrifice was of such value, that it took away, forever, the sins of the entire world from the eyes of God, never to be seen again. Jesus will not come back to shed His blood again. He reconciled the world unto Himself, and now calls upon all men to come to Him to receive life. Sin is taken care of by His death on a cross in order for life to be offered by His resurrection from the dead. Without the necessary preparation of the cross, eternal life could never be given. Now this is eternal life, to know God and His Son, Jesus Christ.

If Jesus had not risen from the dead, then we would not be raised either, and we would remain dead in our sins. But that life, eternal life, resurrected life in Christ Jesus, must be received by faith. That life must be something we want to receive as a gift from God and not by means of what we do. For nothing we do can satisfy the wrath of God for sin, nor can we do anything to be acceptable to God, for there is nothing we do that He should grant us eternal life. Sinless perfection is required, which no man could ever do. Only in Jesus, in His perfect righteousness, credited to us, can we be saved, to have the kind of life God wanted to give us, His very life to be lived in us and through us. This life must be asked for by faith in what Jesus accomplished for you by His death, burial and resurrection for you. Will you come to Christ for life? Will you walk by faith, for the only thing that counts, that pleases God, is faith expressing itself in love?

Transcript

Dave from Vancouver, British Columbia

Dave: I have been reading our books lately. Even before I started reading your books, the Lord was telling me, “I accept you unconditionally no matter what you have done or what you do. There is nothing you can do to change how I feel about you.” I was feeling wonderful about it. I did not stay in the same condition. I understood now that the things that I thought were going to work to receive acceptance and love were not working anyways. There is a whole new way of going about it. I cannot help but go back to the old mindset where I came from out of other denominations. I am not saying any denomination is correct or incorrect, but I am saying that I was at a point where a church was saying I was possessed. I actually started to believe it until I started to understand that the people who were telling me that were not very loving people. How do you go from the old mindset to what I now know to be true and stay there?

Romans 12:2
² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Bob: Dave, I think it is a continual renewal of the mind that we have to continually be engaged in through the word of God because you have past things that Satan does not let you let go of. He tries to put it back in your head. It is renewing your mind on truth. As an example, someone telling you are demon-possessed when you are born again is nonsense. That would be coming from someone who not only does not know what he is talking about, but as you say, is not only unloving, but terribly misinformed. You cannot be indwelt by God and Satan at the same time. Demonic possession is being possessed by demons or by Satan or his demons. So that is an impossibility. That verbiage you do not need to pay any attention to. It is replacing the error that you have heard with truth.

John 8:32
³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Bob: Again, Dave, I do not know how anybody can have any solid stability in regard to truth if they are hanging onto anything, regardless of the denomination, denominational truth instead of going into the word of God on our own and let God teach us. If it matches up with what the leadership of a denomination believes that is fine. We have great fellowship together. But if it doesn’t, then I am certainly not going to say they are right and I am wrong for when God is teaching you then you are taught.

Bob: In the final analysis, the Christian world needs to quit depending on what someone tells them. Begin to depend on the one who alone is our teacher and Counselor, the Holy Spirit. God uses a teacher.

Ephesians 4:11-12
¹¹ So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

Bob: He gave some to be teachers and pastor-teachers and evangelists but their role is to proclaim the good news. But in the final analysis, Dave, it is the Holy Spirit that has to teach us the truth. I can teach you what I have learned. I can teach you what God has revealed to me as truth. And hopefully it is absolute truth, but until God teaches you, not me, but God teaches you, then you are just believing what I am telling you.

Dave: That is what I was thinking. Before I started reading your book, the Lord was telling me, “I love you unconditionally. There is nothing you can do to earn it, buy it or work for it.” I believed that and was so happy and felt so good. But the next day, I was so depressed because I went back to my old thinking. I knew it was the Lord telling me He was accepting me.

Bob: Let me stop you there just a minute Dave. The Spirit was revealing that to you, but again, thank God we have bibles. It is only when you read that.

Romans 10:17
¹⁷ Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

Bob: Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You can know these things. If you are born again, the Spirit that lives in you is revealing things to you but He wants you to learn the meaning of it out of the word of God. So when you read it from the word of God, “I love you so much that I gave you my only begotten Son to you so whenever you turned to faith in me, you became a child of God.” Now you are taught by God you see.

John 3:16
¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 1:12
¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

Dave: There is no peace in what I used to think. Now, there is a lot of peace.

Bob: Absolutely. Whenever those temptations come, to grab a hold of old teaching, again, Dave, where it is old good, or old bad teaching, go back and get it confirmed by the word.

Dave: I see.

Bob: That is where it has to be confirmed. Otherwise, it is just an impression. So Satan comes along and asks, “Is that of God?” Or is that of me? And you say, “I do not know.” But you have to get to the point of saying I know where I believe that. You have to be convinced like the apostle Paul was.

Romans 8:37-39
³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Bob: I look back and say, “That applies to me and I am perfectly loved. Thanks be to God for that.”, when I read that I am accepted in the beloved. Not only loved but accepted in the beloved, I am taught by God now, not by man, but by God.

Ephesians 1:6 (KJV)
⁶ To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

Dave: It is not just how taught, but also the ways I lived before just do not work. So why am I doing them? That is what the Lord was saying to me. I am just telling you that it does not work.

Bob: It is like trying to balance your bank account when you think 2 + 2 is 5. You are going to come to the conclusion that some say that this is not working.

Dave: That is where I am now. There is a reason there are certain ways to live. I know it was to let us know we are living wrong in the first place. But He empowers us to live the right way by teaching us. Like he said, you kind of teach me. No one else can but through the Holy Spirit who lives in me. I should be happy because I am learning.

Bob: Absolutely. That is the process God has you in until the day you are absent from the body and present with the Lord, seeing Him as He really is and becoming like Him. In the meantime, we have terrific joy of learning.

1 John 3:2
² Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Dave: Okay. That sounds great.

Daniel from Vancouver, British Columbia

Daniel: This is what confused me. If your salvation is complete and you are a forgiven person, how is it possible to sin? If you learn stealing is wrong, then would you continue to steal? Does that make any sense?

Bob: Again, you are dealing there with the law. The answer to that is you are not going to stop. The issue is love has to take over. Your flesh, Daniel, is never going to get one ounce better. When you are 50 years old, it will be as rotten as it is today. The only way you are going to curtail the flesh is replacing it with the truth of the Spirit.

Romans 8:6-8
⁶ The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

Bob: The Spirit leads us toward loving one another. That love is the fulfillment of the law. He would lead you.

Galatians 5:16
¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Galatians 5:22-23
²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Bob: I can go steal but would that be loving my neighbor? That is your decision-making process as a new creature in Christ. Is it permissible? Yes. Is it profitable? No.

1 Corinthians 10:23
²³ “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive.

Bob: It does not make any sense as a child of God. It does not mean you cannot do it. It does mean that if you do do it, then the Spirit of God will be working with you as a child of God saying, “Daniel, this is totally inconsistent with who you are as a child of God. What you want to do is very consistent with what you were before you were a child of God.” But do not think you cannot do it, because you can. If you think you cannot, God will show you that you can. But these sins, from God’s vantage point, those sins have been put on the back of God never to be seen again. They have been taken away from the eyes of God forever.

1 John 2:2 (NASB)
² and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Daniel: So if the Holy Spirit has totally convicted you, how stupid that is, and you get it. Once you learn 2 + 2 = 4, how can you learn salvation? That is how I see it.

Bob: Again, you have to take that a step at a time. Your salvation is one thing. What you do with it is something else.

Daniel: It is not what you do, but what it does with you, isn’t it?

Bob: Your salvation is what God did for you. God saved you based upon the fact that you, who had no ability at all to ever take away your own sins or ever give life to yourself, He did that for you, and you entered into that beautiful relationship with Christ Jesus. You also have flesh hanging on you. You also have indwelling sin living in you. Now, that has been taken away from the eyes of God, but it is still here in you. Why did God leave it here in you? In my opinion, if He had not left it here in you, you would forget Jesus in a New York minute. I believe my yucky flesh is what keeps me dependent on Christ.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10
⁷ or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Bob: It is just like the lady who said to me one time, “I could never kill someone.” “Then you only need a 90% Jesus. Then if you never committed adultery, then you only need an 80% Jesus because you cannot kill and you cannot commit adultery. If you could never covet, then you only need a 70% Jesus. Then you could get to the point that you become so good that you do not need Him at all.”

Daniel: You think about war and people have to kill.

Bob: The issue is, we have to finalize that we are a forgiven people.

Daniel: Exactly. How can you be in a situation of war. You are fighting for principles and still being saved at the same time. Technically it is kind of murder.

Bob: The answer to that is because your sins have been put on the back of God, never to see them again.

Daniel: That is a tough call. I respect people who have been in the military.

Bob: I do not think it is hard at all, any more than if someone who came into your home and tried to rape your family. Are you going to sit back and say nothing. No. We have to realize that is just not the way things run. We are in a fallen world.

Bob: Yes, we have to get off, but you call again, Daniel. Bye Bye.

James from Victoria, TX

James: Your program sure has been a blessing to me. I have a question on Luke 6:37-38, where it says do not judge and do not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given. Can you expound on those passages, on what they mean?

Luke 6:37-38
³⁷ “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. ³⁸ Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Bob: I think where we mistake these things, James, is not realizing that what he is saying is how do we live down here on this level with one another. “Do not judge others or you will be judged by others.” “Do not condemn others or they will condemn you.” “Forgive others and they will forgive you.” “Give and it will be given to you, a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Luke 6:39-42
³⁹ He also told them this parable: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit? ⁴⁰ The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.
⁴¹ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴² How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Matthew 7:1-3
¹ “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. ² For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
³ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

What is he talking about there? He is talking about brothers judging others, brothers condemning others. Hold on a minute. You have a log in your own eye.

Matthew 7:4-5
⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Bob: It is the same thing that is talked about in Corinthians with the Lord’s supper. If you would think through and judge yourself you would not come under judgment of the rest of the body of Christ.

1 Corinthians 11:33-34
³³ So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. ³⁴ Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.

Bob: All those things are very true, when you go out and judge someone else. Whenever you are pointing your finger at someone else, you have three pointing back at you. When we go out as Christians judging people, we will be judged ourselves. Many times when judgment comes back to a Christian, it is more severe because they expect more.

Bob: Here is an example of that. A lady wanted to get into a fussy conversation over a statement made by a prominent person in the realm of Christianity. He is a citizen of the United States. Why is it that the only people who do not have the freedom of speech are Christians? He has the freedom to say what he wants to say as a citizen of the United States. I do not think it was the best wisdom, although he did not say anything except that he ought to be taken out. How many liberals have tried to take out a certain person running for office, such as someone for president or Supreme Court. “Take him out. Get rid of him. Impeach him.𔄙, they say. Why would you not think he was thinking the same thing? I do not know his heart on that. But when you start judging and condemning people, you will be judged and condemned. That is the law of the land.

James: That is what Luke was saying, “the measure you use will be measured”. The reason I ask is because I come from church where they take that passage and use it toward money.

Bob: Oh, yea.

James: I did not think it was what it really meant.

Bob: It does not say money, does it?

James: No, sir.

Bob: It is not talking about money at all. If your priority in life is getting money, you will take every verse of scripture and funnel it through that funnel.

James: Absolutely. I appreciate that, brother. You clarified some things. I felt it was what it meant. I wanted clarification on it.

Bob: You are sure welcome, brother. Thank you for your call, pal. Bye Bye.

Joe from Akron, OH

Joe: I am a first time caller. I am asking about the scripture that says that many are called but few are chosen. What does that mean?

2 Peter 3:9
⁹ The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Bob: Joe, it is God’;s will that none should perish and all should come to repentance. That means everyone has been called to repentance. But only the ones whose hearts are going to turn to Christ by faith and faith alone are the chosen ones. As an example, if you remember as a child, out on a sandlot playing basketball, and they choose up sides. Suppose you are the person to choose your team. You see one guy yawning, with his back turned to you, playing pinochle, and you see another guy that was looking around, wanting to play something else. Then you see three other guys, looking at you intently, saying “Choose me. Choose me.” Which one do you think you would choose for your team? You would choose the interested ones. That is what God does.

Ephesians 2:8-9
⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.

Bob: Those who come to Christ come by faith and faith alone. But those who want to come by works, but you will never make it that way. You can keep trying all you want but the ones I choose for salvation are those who see they cannot do it on their own, and are coming to me by faith and faith alone. So I called all of you but only a few are going to humble themselves and come by faith and faith alone in Jesus.

Joe: So it does apply to salvation then?

Bob: Yes, absolutely. Joe, you can see today what is going on with all the different religions. Then you hear people saying, “I am a born again Christian” and then turn around and say, “See, we all believe in the same God”. Nonsense. Muslims do not believe in the same God that a Christian or Jew does. A Buddhist does not believe in the same God. That is nonsense. Yet, they say “I am a born again Christian”, yet they then say something like that, and you say, “You better keep your mouth shut until you learn more about the bible so you do not say such stupid statements”. It is not the same God. We have to understand the truth of that. It is not the same God. God has chosen that you come to God one way, and that is through His Son, Christ Jesus.

Acts 4:12
¹² Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

Bob: Not being narrow-minded. He is the only source of life available to us. Buddha cannot give you life. Mohammad cannot give you life. The pope cannot give you life. Martin Luther cannot give you life. I cannot give you life. Billy Graham cannot give you life. Only the risen Christ can give life to the spiritually dead. So, it is not the case of being narrow-minded. It is just the practicality of God Himself. It is God ’s will that none should perish, but only a few are going to come to Jesus by faith for the life He has offered.

Joe: I hear so many pastors on radio and they all generally agree that Jesus Christ is the only true salvation. When it comes to asking them about salvation, who is saved and who is not, some people say people can become unsaved and resaved.

Bob: That is not true.

Joe: Then you have the concept of back-sliding.

Bob: Back-sliding is in the Old Testament but not in the New Testament, Joe. The issue is if you are in Christ Jesus. What is salvation? It is raising the dead to life.

Colossians 2:13
¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,

Bob: Why did He say that? Because what caused spiritual death to begin with is sin. So, in order for Him to give you and me, who are born dead spiritually, spiritual life, He had to take away eternally the cause of death. That was sin. That is the purpose of the cross, where there He who knew no sin literally became sin for you, Joe, so in His resurrected life, you and I could become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21
²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Bob: So He had to eternally deal with the cause of spiritual death, sins. He did so at the cross. He took away the sins of the entire world. He did not forget one. He cried out from the cross, “It is finished”, meaning “paid in full”.

John 19:30
³⁰ When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Bob: Now, having accomplished that, He is now able to offer resurrected life. That is the meaning of His resurrection. He is now able to offer a solution now to the consequence to sin being death by the gift of God, which is life. That is by offering us, you and me, resurrected life. That is the meaning of the resurrection, that life that raised Him from the dead can raise you and me from our state of spiritual death. Salvation is when we understand the truth of that. We thank Him for the forgiveness that enabled Him to give me eternal life. Then basically ask Him to come and to give you what He came to do, and that is to give you life.

John 10:10
¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Bob: So you respond by saying, “Lord, if that is the case, I want your life”. When that occurs, you are born again. When you are born again, you are born again eternally. The reason you have eternal life is because of the eternal consequence of the cross. The reason it is nonsense for people to teach you can lose salvation, eternal life, is because they do not understand what salvation is. Salvation is life. They also do not understand what the cross accomplished, and that is eternally taking away the cause of spiritual death to man.

Joe: I also wanted to ask this. I have a Pentecostal friend. He is worried and tired just as I am. Now that he is retired, he is trying to catch up on, as far as pleasing God, through church. He is just constantly running, on the go, going to this and that seminar. Now, he is actually thinking about going to Jamaica, leaving his family behind for a month. I asked him, “Do you really think this is pleasing to God?” His only reply was “I try to. I am trying to.”

Bob: Unfortunately, Joe, that is one of the problems you run into in a lot of Pentecostal teaching. There is a works-orientation, where people are working, trying to do something to prove that God has accepted them. The issue is you cannot do something. If you are looking for a sign that is a repudiation of faith. He needs to learn to rest, James. I would recommend you pick up a book for him called Classic Christianity. Give that to him, and ask him to read it. I guarantee it will change his life.